Single-seater school desk, 1936
Remaining as projects or prototypes until the postwar period, the different types of single-seater desks designed by Jean Prouvé in 1935 display all the characteristics of the models to come. Following the line of the desks created for the open-air school in Suresnes and the École Nationale Professionnelle in Metz, Prouvé worked with architect Jacques André on two versions of a single-seater desk: made entirely of bent steel and fitted with a tilting top and a satchel holder, it was intended for children aged 6 to 8. The prototypes were displayed in Paris in 1936–1937,1 together with the prototype of a simplified version in two heights, using the same base of three bent steel uprights. These latter were identical to those on the two-seater school desks, but were connected by a large-diameter tube to which a satchel holder could be attached. This was the model returned to in 1950 as the basis for an adjustable version that evolved in line with the changing requirements of the Ministère de l’Éducation. A system of sliding tubes meant the top and the wooden seat could be adapted to suit pupils aged 5 to 15. Although exhibited several times,2 and prominent in the Ateliers Jean Prouvé’ catalogs, advertising and price lists, this single-seater desk, with or without the addition of a pressed steel satchel holder, seems not to have been mass-produced. In 1952—doubtless in response to new administrative requirements—a lighter model (no. 800) was made: its four slim, tapered, triangular section legs were welded to a tube frame that also housed the adjusting rods for the seat and for the top, with its metal compartment.3 It would seem that the non-adjustable two-seater version (no. 801) did not go on the market.
1. Exhibition of school furniture in Paris organized by the UAM (Union des Artistes Modernes) and the OTUA (Office Technique pour l’Utilisation de l’Acier) at the Salon d’automne in 1936 and the Salon des Arts Ménagers in January 1937.
2. Notably in 1951 on the French stand at the Milan Triennial, and in the Coque house at the Salon des Arts Ménagers.
3. Four examples were displayed at the international exhibition of school construction in Zürich in June 1953.